Steadfast Love

2 Timothy 1: 1-14; Lamentations 1: 1-6

"Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get" and "Stupid is as stupid does."  You may recognize those lines from the wonderful movie, Forest Gump.  The plot revolves around a man who has a low IQ of 75 and who experiences an amazing journey through life.  He meets famous people and experiences first hand historic events. He influences popular culture and, through much of the movie,   maintains a certain adorable innocence. 

His closest friend is a girl named Jenny.  They have been friends since the first grade.  Jenny is a not so famous girl who grew up in a home where she was physically and sexually abused by her father.  In one scene, Forest and Jenny, now young adults, are walking down a dirt road located in their old neighborhood.  Suddenly, they stop walking.   With reflections of fear and pain stamped on her eyes, Jenny stares at an old dilapidated house, which is the house she grew up In and where pain was inflicted upon her.  She stares at the house and then suddenly runs towards it.   Stopping some twenty or thirty feet shy of the house she picks up some rocks and begins throwing them.  They pelt the side of the house.  They fly through windows that have already been cracked and shattered by vandals.  She keeps finding rocks and throwing.  She cannot stop herself.  Finally, Forest comes to her side and gently holds her wrist and says, “Sometimes there aren’t enough rocks.” 

It is my favorite line. Sometimes the pain is so deep, there are not enough words to describe it.  Sometimes, there aren’t enough tears to convey the depth of the suffering.  Sometimes there aren’t enough rocks.

            This past week marked the one year anniversary of the horrendous murders that occurred in an Amish school located in a Pennsylvania town ironically named Paradise..  A thirty two year old man entered the school building heavily armed with guns and knives and 600 rounds of ammunition.  After the rage of terror was over, five girls were dead.  Sometimes the grief is so thick words cannot describe it. 

            On August 29, 2005, Pass Christian, Mississippi was almost completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Of the approximately 8,000 homes in that community, all but 500 were damaged or destroyed. The storm surge from Hurricane Katrina that hit the town was estimated at 30-37 feet, leveling Pass Christian up to half a mile inland from the shore.  There is still a need for help.  Some of the people of that area are still without jobs.  Some are still without a home.   Suffering continues.  Sometimes there are not enough rocks.    

            As its title suggests, Lamentations is a book about suffering and pain.   The book was written in behalf of people who have seen their cities destroyed.  They have seen a terrorizing army pillage and demolish homes, businesses and temple.   The survivors are carried into exile.  Either during exile or after a return to Jerusalem from exile, the writer delivers the forlorn message :”[Zion], (Jerusalem) weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks.  Judah has gone into exile with suffering…and finds no resting place.” (Verses 2, 3)  In chapter three, the writer writes: “The thought of my affliction and homelessness is wormwood.”  Wormwood was an eatable plant that left a bitter taste in the mouth.  No matter how hard one tried to get rid of it, the bitterness remained.  Judah is bitter, sad and suffering.    

On and on, the writer laments his circumstances of woe and despair.  I get the feeling even the words of the book do not adequately describe the grief and the suffering the people are experiencing.    

            But the writer has a happy revelation in chapter three, right in the middle of Lamentations, right in the middle of Judah’s suffering. 

“This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning…”  The experience of exile has left the taste of wormwood in the mouth of Judah.  There sometimes are not enough rocks (not enough words to describe the suffering); but  there is always enough grace and mercy, gifts that sustain God’s people through storms of suffering. 

The Amish schoolhouse massacre was wormwood.  There weren’t enough rocks in Paradise, Pennsylvania.  “But the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning.”

A grandfather of one of the murdered Amish girls said of the killer on the day of the murder: "We must not think evil of this man."  Jack Meyer, a member of the Brethren community living near the Amish in Lancaster County, explained: "I don't think there's anybody here that wants to do anything but forgive and not only reach out to those who have suffered a loss in that way but to reach out to the family of the man who committed these acts.,"  A spokesman of the gunman’s family said an Amish neighbor comforted that family hours after the shooting and extended words and gestures of forgiveness. In the days immediately following the shooting, that Amish community set up a charitable fund for the family of the shooter.[1]

The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina was wormwood for the people of the Gulf Coast.  But since then thousands have traveled there and extended to the residents of those devastated communities words and gestures of peace and compassion.  Even now, churches, secular organizations and families are making plans to go there to offer the love of Christ. 

When Robert Louis Stevenson was nearing the end of is life his wife came in one morning and said, "I suppose in spite of all your trouble you will tell me again that it is a beautiful day." The great writer answered, "Yes, my dear. I refuse to let that row of medicine bottles be the circumference of my horizon."[2]

This morning I encourage you to broaden your horizon.   In the midst of our suffering, whenever and wherever we are suffering, the one found at this table is present.  The one whose life, death and resurrection we remember at this table of remembrance is always with us. 

Sometimes there are not enough rocks.  How true!

But there is an even greater truth. 

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning…”